For his show at Charlie Dutton Gallery
\, Howard Dyke will install twenty new paintings from the last two years. T
he dimensions of the Tudor building in Holborn by chance are the same as Ho
ward’s studio space. So the work he will show has literally been made for t
he space without him knowing it. A bombastic journey through disparate and
some times desperate imagery. ‘Sense Maniac’ is an expressionist movement a
ll of its own.

\n

Dyke's gestural\,
painterly brushwork is expressive\, emotive\, evocative\, but his gestures
tend towards the figure and it’s clothing - in the case of the veil\, robe
or burka. As his brush strokes form folds\, lines drips of colour\, they r
elate back to drapery\, dress and costume. The drapery is suggestive\, allo
wing for multiple readings or projections\, a conflation of apparel of pain
t\, covering and protecting but also displaying the fabric\, or providing a
reason or support for bright colours and bold flowing patterns.

\n

Dyke destroys gesture and collapses the fi
gure/ground dialectic. He takes apart his open expressionist gesture in ord
er to examine it from a new view-point\, rearranging\, turning it around to
see how it works\, or to continue it. The folds become cut\, the seams pro
liferate\; the working method is still quick\, loose and impulsive\, but sc
issors have\, for now\, replaced the paintbrush\; the scissors of a Tailor\
, a Collagist\, a Montagist\, creating new forms\, mantles and relationship
s\; assembling splinters into whole things again\, finding spontaneous conj
unctions from the pieces.